Project Notes

Items I’ve thought about during the making of the book; some thoughts have stayed with me and some were simply passing through, but some were with me all along.

Medieval manuscripts

Jean Pucelle and the Limbourg Brothers
(exhibits at the Met)

Indian painting

ancient texts, like the The Golden Legend and
The Ramayana 

Silent movies, especially George Méliès and Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney

Wordlessness

Punch &  Judy / Guignol puppet show

Cologne school of medieval art (like Stefan Lochner)

Night walking in Paris, New York City and Montréal

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

walking / wanderlust

Flâneur

Medieval bas relief / stained glass windows

Garnier Opera House / stage set models

Operas and librettos / sections as “Acts”

Musical noises and sounds, without talking, 

Tempo and beat

Music, including rock concept albums
(esp. Sgt. Peppers Hearts Club Band)

Theatre and plays, ballets and symphonies

shamanism / trickster

Joseph Campbell texts

yoga / meditation

My own life experiences and history

stargazing

Southern California deserts

Train, Subway or Metro riding

dizzy spells / seeing stars

illness / childhood illness

trance music / Javanese & Balinese dances

artist as Composer 

Page or spread as its own “song” from the
whole “album”.

Spread should be powerful on its own, taken in as
one composition.

magicians / conjuring / tricksters like Ricky Jay

public ridicule & bullying / medieval devices & methods / pillory

Indonesian shadow puppets

Indonesian temple bas-relief and carvings

stage sets

Japanese scrolls

Bayeux Tapestry

asceticism

portable artwork / pilgrimage

optical toys / tunnel books

The stillness of Seurat

Egyptian art

Eadward Muybridge

Contemporary artist books, like Sol LeWitt’s Isometric Drawings and Autobiography

Upright Citizens Brigade

The Onion article on graphic novels (picked up after an UCB class)

Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo - along with repeated endings and repetition

underground comix